Black Sheep

Ack!

Moni — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:42:05 +0000

How the f*ck did it get to be October already? sigh. Well, here is the Summertime Tunic. I finished this and took the picture over a week ago and I am just now getting this posted.

Pattern: Summertime tunic. A free pattern from Interweave. You can find it here.
Yarn: Elann sonata.
Needles: it’s been too long and I can’t remember. and i’m too lazy to check on Ravelry. How’s that for ya!
Started: a long time ago
Finished: a longer time ago

sigh. I’m losing the knit blogging mojo guys. Help! Maybe I need to change the way I do things here. hmmm. I’m just not into it so much anymore. I mean, I am knitting still, but the blogging about it is not as exciting as it once was. Why is this?

I signed up for Nablopomo. I am going to post something on Blatherskite every day for the month of November. I’ve actually been posting a picture a day, which has been a really fun (albeit timeconsuming) excercise. But my challenge will be to actually post written words everyday, as well. I may write about knitting over there again during that month. We’ll see. I need to figure out how to make this fun again!

All over the place

Moni — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:13:16 +0000

I am really all over the place with my knitting lately! I have a bad case of Startitis. But I was really itching to knit with that Kool-Aide dyed yarn from the previous post. It’s in the Project Spectrum colors of August and September: Purple, brown, and orange (with burgundy accidentally thrown in). So I really want to focus on this project and try to finish it up during September. So anyway, I was working on it this past week and I’m really, really liking the way it’s knitting up! Yay! i’m so happy! My first knitting with my handspun! What the hell is it you ask? Well, it’s the beginnings of a hat. I ran out of yarn and had to finish spinning some up. The hank is drying at the moment and I will continue on when it’s dry. I am just at the point where you start decreasing. I started out making the seed-stitch hat/scarf combo from this month’s issue of Knit Simple (as i mentioned before). But the seed stitch was too much for this yarn. So I frogged and went with plain old stockinette and I like it much better. The pattern also tells you to cast on double the amount of crown stitches and then knit in ribbing for an inch. I didn’t want to do that. I mean, it would be all floppy where the ribbing is! I like my hats kind of snug. So I am basically just doing my own thing, inspired by the hat/scarf combo pattern in Knit Simple.

In the meantime I’m working on this scarf from Victorian Knitting today. It’s kind of a boring knit. So it may take me awhile. I do four rows and have to put it aside. But it’s going to be pretty when it’s done. I love the “color”.

Bunny still doesn’t have a face. I need to spend time on that. The recipient’s birthday has past so I need to finish the bunny up already. Also, Summertime Tunic is done. I just have to frog down my icord a bit so it doesn’t hang down to the floor when it is tied in front. Oh, and I also need to buy a strapless bra. But it’s really cute!

Happy Tuesday!

Spinning!

Moni — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:43:54 +0000

Here is that Kool-Aide dyed yarn Andean plied:

I really like the way it turned out! I’m working on some more singles that I will Andean ply again. I think I am going to make this into a hat/scarf combo. Like the one in the latest Knit Simple (I think I’m going to knit that vest for the Fall Cable KAL). I like the idea of a hat/scarf combo thing, but I might do my own thing with it.

Another couple of things

Moni — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 03:36:11 +0000

First of all, I’m done knitting the Summertime Tunic. Yay! It’s blocking. It’s been blocking for a couple of days now. I’m sure it’s dry by now. I’ve been spending the past few days knitting icord for it. I’m using Den-M-Knit for the icord. I had to knit 4 yards of it! I finally finished that yesterday and washed and dried it. When I get some extra time I will finish the assembly of it and then take a picture of it on. Hoping it is cute! I hate spending time on something only for it to turn out crappily.

Next: I knitted a Knitted Cuddly for my niece’s 2nd birthday! Obviously I made the rabbit. The problem is that I don’t know how to put a face on it! How do you embroider a face on a stuffed animal? I tried the french knot that they give the directions for at the end of the pattern but have failed miserably each time. sigh. My bunny needs a face! Any advice?

Well, that’s it from this corner.

Spinning

Moni — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:17:41 +0000

A middle-of-the-week picture for you. My Kool-aide dyed singles, before I Andean Plied:

Couple O Things

Moni — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 04:33:51 +0000

I promised you a picture of my felted clogs, which I have been wearing constantly (while in the house) for almost two weeks. I LOVE them. I love everything about them. Knitting them was so much fun. It was really cool to see how they would all come together. AND they knit up very, very fast. I had the first one knitted in a day. A mere few hours, really. The felting process was fun, too. I like felting, though. The key with these is to try them on as you are felting them to get the best fit. That means you have to try them on when they are wet, and a little warm (if using hot water to felt). But it’s really worth it because they fit like a dream. They kind of molded to my foot. Like I said, I love them.

The second project that I worked on this week were these footies. As I was rushing out of the house on Tuesday morning I decided that I wanted to knit some footies. I had a knitting date that night so I grabbed some remnants of leftover Lorna’s Laces yarn and decided to try to figure it out later. I was going to try and wing it but I didn’t have to. I found this wonderful little pattern on the Blue Blog. For this project I learned how to do a short row heel and toe and, oh my god, I love it. How much easier can it get? I didn’t have to count anything. I didn’t have to keep track of my rows. And it seemed really quick. Plus, I just love the way it looks. I knitted these little footies up in a couple of days. I will be making more. I will probably make several pairs of these because I love wearing footies.

Lutea Lace Shell

Moni — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:02:00 +0000

I finished this a couple of weeks ago and wore it to work on Tuesday. I’m just now getting around to uploading it and posting it! sheesh! anyway here’s the info:

Pattern: Lutea Lace Shoulder Shell from Interweave’s Summer 2007 issue.
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton. My silly-looking Chevron Rib Tank was frogged.
Needles: Size 8. Addis.
Started: July25th 2007
Finished: August 4th 2007.
I made the medium size.

Another quick and easy knit. I like this so much better than the Chevron Rib tank and will wear it more often. I even have a skirt that goes with it! The cotton is soft and comfortable. The only issue I have is that the armholes are a little big. I really need to learn how to adjust patterns so that my finished items will fit me better. But it’s not so bad, really. I was able to wear it without any wardrobe malfunctions.

That’s about all I have to say about that. I’m finished with my felted clogs and am wearing them right now. I love them! I will take pictures and post soon.

Until then, have a great weekend.

Project Spectrummy

Moni — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:23:28 +0000

Hi! I’m back from my vacation. I’m updating on the fun times at Blatherskite if you are intersted (or really boared and need something to do ). There were some knitting adventures. And that I will update here. I actually found one yarn store. I didn’t seek out yarn stores in any of the towns we camped near because, well, I was in no condition to go shopping, frankly. But when we were staying on the Long Beach Peninsula we stayed in a really nice motel (where I actually got to take a blessed shower!). And guess what? There was a yarn store right in the little town we stayed in! At first I couldn’t find it and I actually drove and walked down the street it was on twice. I had come to the conclusion that it didn’t exist anymore and that I had looked in an old phone book. But then I had the brains to ask the nice sales lady at an awesome used book store that we stopped at and she gave me directions. It was just down closer to the beach and I didn’t venture down far enough down the road to find it! It is the Tapestry Rose yarn shop. A very fine establishment. Very good customer service and it is located right at the beach. Can’t get much better than that! Oh and it is in the same building as a cafe. Perfect! Of course I bought yarn. I bought a ball of Tofutsies. I mean, come on. I had to buy yarn made partly of crab shells while on the beach. Oh, and i bought the Fiber Trends felted clog pattern. I started on them and am, actually, almost finished knitting them, as you can see from the picture. What a fun knit! And they are in orange, 1/3rd of the next two month’s color triads for Project Spectrum 2.0.

Speaking of that, here is another P.S. project I did yesterday. I bought a pound of BFL roving from Paradise Fibers yesterday, undyed. Then I space-dyed 4 ounces of it using my crockpot with Kool-aide. I used two packets of grape, two packets of orange, and then to make brown I used one packet of orange and one packet of purple. The directions call for four jars of color so I mixed one package of purple and one package of red for the fourth jar, hoping to get a deeper shade of purple. Instead, I got burgundy. Here is what it looks like:

Interesting, eh? It will be fun to spin up. I’m contemplating how to do this. I’m not sure if I want long runs of color, but I don’t think I have much of a choice. Well, I will just go for and see what happens. I am going to play some more with this Kool-aid dying, though. It’s addicting!

A quick post

Moni — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:23:24 +0000

I’m going on vacation tomorrow. Yay! We are going on an Oregon State Park extravaganza. First we are camping at Mt. Hood. Then we are going to the coast and staying at various campgrounds on the Oregon Coast, ending up at Long Beach, WA.

I finished my Lutea Lace Shell and it’s blocking. I will take some shots of it on when we get back on Sunday. So look for them a week from today. In the meantime, here it is blocking:

Thank you all so much for your suggestions on how to make Coachella less obscene . They were all really good! I am going to stew on it while I’m gone. I will let you know what I decide.

Coachella

Moni — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 03:56:24 +0000

Okay. Here they are. Coachella pics.
Pattern: Coachella from Knitty Summer 2007.
Yarn: Cotton-Ease in the discontinued Blueberry colorway. I think I used about 2 skeins.
Needles: Size 8. Addis.
Started: July 22nd 2007
Finished: July 25st 2007.

This was an awesomely fast knit. Just what I needed! I was getting tired of knitting lace. It’s knitted from the top down. The construction is very interesting. I like some parts of it.

Like the racer-back. I’m not so sure about the floppy front, though. I can’t bend over with this top. Ever. Because you can see EVERYTHING. sigh.

I’m not going to rip, though. I need to figure how how to tack it down. Maybe thread elastic through the neckline? Anybody have any ideas? Or I could just wear a tank underneath it. I do like it. I just don’t want to flash everyone if I wear it.